BYNG OF VIMY RIDGE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 22, 25 July 1935, Page 8

BYNG OF VIMY RIDGE

HIS WOEK FOE LONDON

COMMISSIONER OF POLICE

"Byng of Vimy Ridge"—commander of the Canadian troops in the immortal episode of the Great War —that must always be the nation's first thought of Field-Marshal Viscount Byng, .whose death occurred in England last month, says the "News-Chronicle."

To Londoners, however, he stood also as I'.ie man who, while Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1928 to 1931, set himself to purge the metropolis of evil elements and to improve the shaken morale of the great force which was just then the object of bitter criticism.

Lord Byng took over control of the Metropolitan force when all was not well with that body. He did not dssire the post, and only accepted it because, in the words of Sir William Joynson-Hicks, then Home Secretary, he regarded it as a "stern call to duty."

Those, however, who expected him to introduce stern, military methods, untempered by the human touch, were to receive a surprise, for Lord Byng quickly- showed that he realised that, although the police are a disciplined body, they are not soldiers to be controlled by parade-ground methods.

POPULAR MAN.

Just as he had moved about among his Canadian troops on the Western battle-front, and later among the men of the Third Army, so he moved about the Metropolitan area, visiting police stations, with a smile and cheery word that Won him the liking and loyalty of all ranks.

Rumours' of bribery and corruption were rife. Lord Byng did not hesitate to probe the allegations to the full, and as a result a police officer, Sergeant Goddard, Mrs. Meyrick, the "Night Club Queen," and a Soho restaurant manager named Luigi Ribuffl were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment. There were other purgings of the Force, and a wholesale cleaning up of the West End—bogus clubs were suppressed, undesirable meeting-places wiped out, and night life -in London became a more wholesome thing.

Meanwhile promotion by merit, rather than seniority, had placed every police officer on his . mettle. Motor bandits were giving trouble; the Commissioner enlarged the- Flying Squad and equipped it with more and faster cars and called wireless to their aid. He gave the public a greater feeling of security by increasing night patrols in the suburbs where burglars had been very active, and placing a ring of police telephone boxes round London. -This is only part of what he did for the Metropolitan Force and for the ', security of the 8,000,000 people and the untold wealth under his care. As a military commander he had a magnificent and unsullied record. As commander of the Canadian Corps and then of the Third Army, he showed a fine technical efficiency and a personality which could lead and inspire. The storming of~ the Vimy Ridge in April, 1917, by the Canadians, and the break-through by the Third Army at Cambrai were among the most brilliant and successful, oi offensive operations during the war. In the ■ final push, it was Lord Byng's Army that had the difficult task of breaking the Hindenburg line.

CAVALRY LEADER.

Born in 18(32, the seventh son of the Earl of Stratford, Lord Byng, like the late Earl Haig, was a cavalry officer and .served with distinction in ; the, Sudan campaign in 1884 and in the South-African War. In the Great War he was in the furious fighting which marked the first Battle of Ypres in 1914, and then took command of the Cavalry Corps. He served in the later stages of the Gallipoli campaign, commanding the Ninth Corps. On his return to' France he commanded first the Seventeenth Corps and then the Canadian Corps, which became known at the front as "the Byng Boys." -

In March, 1918, after Ludendorfl had1 struck with terrific violence at the Fifth British Army under Gough to the south of Lord Byng'is Third Army, Lord Byng repulsed a great German assault at Arras. In 1919 he was raised to the Peerage as Baron Byng of Vimy and Thorpe-le-Soken, receiving the thanks of Parliament and a grant of £30,000, a large part of which he spent in helping demobilised or disabled soldiers.

After his retirement from Scotland Yard Lord and Lady Byng travelled abroad. While in California, Lord Byng, who confessed himself a film enthusiast, was greatly interested in Hollywood and its methods.